‘Why there are jobless pilots in Nigeria’

The Rector, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology ( NCAT), Captain Chinyere Kalu has attributed the inability of young Nigerians to secure jobs in indigenous airlines to the attitude of proprietors who prefer expatriates.

She accused the proprietors of not helping the sector with their preference for foreign pilots, who she said, do not understand the terrain and weather of the country as opposed to their indigenous counterparts, who were trained locally.

In an interview in Zaria in Kaduna, Kaduna State at the weekend, Kalu said the perceived shortage of pilots and engineers in Nigeria is traceable to the unpatriotic attitude of indigenous airline owners who continue to employ foreigners. “My disappointment and discouragement stems from the fact that our Nigerian businessmen and operators are not patronising home grown pilots and engineers. They will rather employ a green horn with 200 flying hours from the United States (US) or anywhere instead of employing our own home grown, well trained pilots who may even have up to 250 or 300 flyinghours”

She said it is not true that there is shortage of indigenous pilots and engineers, but airline owners just prefer to employ foreign pilots who may not properly understand the terrain and weather of Nigeria like the home grown pilots. “These airline owners need to demonstrate patriotism by employing our pilots,” she emphasised.

Kalu also spoke of plans by the college to start helicopter training and degree awarding programmes this year. Speaking on the transformation of the college in the past three years, she said training of helicopter pilots will kick off as soon as the college takes delivery of its acquired Bell 206 helicopters in Lagos.

According to her, it has become necessary to introduce helicopter training as 80 per cent of helicopter pilots were foreigners being used for off shore oil rigs in the Niger Delta. She explained: “It’s a very sensitive area and key in our economy and should be well secured. Having such operations done by foreigners is not in the best interest of our nation. If Nigerians are in the forefront in taking over fixed wing operators, I don’t see the reason rotary wings should be left in the hands of foreigners especially the sensitive nature of such operations. The training will commence this year, and we need smaller helicopters to start.”